Christmas Eve at the Fletchers!

As we alternate holidays every year for our families, this was the year we spent Christmas Eve and G'ma and G'pa Fletcher's with all of my siblings. Aunt Ashley was in charge this year. She came up with some awesome games. It started with water bottle bowling, except your ball was hanging from your head in a nylon! It was a hit, we had a lot of fun. Then we had all the kids laying on the floor wiggling thier faces to move thier Oreo from thier forehead to thier mouth. That was a hilarious thing to watch they all got very into it. I believe Emily won with some help from her shoulder. The Grandkids also decorated waffle cones like Christmas trees with G'ma Julie and Aunt Sandi, also Aunt Ashley's idea! After a long Christmas Eve we came home, bringing the Martin's with us. Ashley and I proceeded to "wrap" up Christmas and prepare for Christmas morning! It is definitely much messier with two families opening gifts. We are so blessed! Merry Christmas from the Yates!!!

Thanksgiving

We had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was very small. Blayne's Aunt and Grandma came, there was 10 of us total. We had too much food, like always, then followed up the evening with a movie.

NOW ONTO CHRISTMAS!!!!

Gavin turns 8!

So my one and only boy is now 8! Most of the family was in town to help us celebrate. We were also able to Baptize him the same day. We are very blessed to have such a sweet young man bless our home. He is growing so fast! He attended his first scout meeting this week. He is so excited to be a Boy Scout!

I counted about 54 people that attended his baptism. Gavin is quite the lucky little boy to have such a supportive family.

So.....

While waiting at the airport for my flight to Utah I get a call from my sister, she is now a Grandma and I am now a Great Aunt. After rushing home from Utah, Jordan and Kayla brought over sweet baby Aurin to visit his Great Autie. I made my sick Maddy stay up stairs while I visited with this sweet little baby boy. I felt bad, but......... There is no greater blessing then a sweet spirit fresh from our Heavenly Fathers presence.

Utah Road Trip

Well, half of a road trip anyway. Blayne and I flew to Salt Lake City,Utah on a Friday to pick up a car from Tru and Shan. The boys got up early the next morning to go hiking, they came home, we had breakfast. Then we said our goodbyes.

After Leaving the Nielsen's, we went to visit some of the Yates' family before we headed home. Grandma Yates and Aunt Patty and Uncle Rich live in Orem. It's been a long time so it was great to be able to visit, even though it was quick.

Then the long drive home began, we had a lot of fun. We were also able to stop in Boise to have dinner with Jeff and Sandi.

We would have loved to visit longer but our babies were at home with Chelsea and Kristen. I left Maddy with a temperature. Only to get home at 2:30am Sunday morning to take her to the Dr. on Monday and she had a raging ear infection, then her ear drum burst on Tuesday. So it was good we came home when we did.

Halloween

October flew by at the Yates house. I was going through pictures on my camera and the only pictures for October were Halloween. Wow! I volunteered at the school for the Harvest parties, it was a very packed day. It's nice having all three kids in school so I am available to help out a lot more. Victoria started the, "I'm too old to dress up but I still want to trick or treat" phase this year. Her "ghost" costume was all she would agree to do. We had a cute Princess costume for Maddy but when the Witch costume came out of storage, it was done. Gavin was a ninja, I tried for a cowboy but it was a no go. The kids actually got quite spoiled this year. They went trick-or-treating for the city event on Saturday then went again on Halloween. They went around our neighborhood, then came back to hand out candy too! All in all it was a good Halloween.

Then Multnomah Falls

After our Timberline trip we rushed home, switched cars, and rushed out to Multnomah Falls. Like TImberline the Falls were beautiful! Apparently we weren't the only people that were trying to get in one last trip with this beautiful September weekend. The parking lot was packed and there was also a wedding party taking photos. We made great use of our short visit and took a lot of pictures. I am of the mind set you can never have enough pictures of your family, Blayne on the other hand gets impatient with me. Good thing I love him anyway!!!!

With September coming to an end, this family is ready for October!